The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-11-23
POPULAR SCIENCE.

DR.. Buisson, of Paris, claims to curt
hydrophobia by hot baths often repeated.
He makes the patient remain continually
in hot room and the baths are made as
hot as 142 degrees.
The tube, axis and other machinery OF
the great Lick telescope, which is to be
placed in the Lick Observatory on Mount
Hamilton, CAL, have been completed,
and shipped to California. The object
glass is 30 inches in diameter, and the
total weight of the telescope is 35 tons.
Valuable anthracite coal 6ndsare being
made on the Northern Pacific coast. One
district is said to possess the richest coal
measures in the world, One vein is "A
feet thick, another 30 feet and another
12 feet. Allthese seams are within dis
tance of 700 yards. There are seven coal
seams in all.
Prof. Tumas, European psychologist.
has shown that vomiting is the result of
irritation of space in the medulla OBJ.
longata about oue-ffth of an inch long
and one-twelfth wide, and believes that
the brains of ruminants, rodents and
other non-vomiting animals lack thir
svomiting center"
Cotton, according to scientific an-
thority, is not fiber, but plant hair.
1t holds to be spun into thread because
of peculiar twists in each hair, shown
under the microscope, especially in
polarized light. Linen thread may be
spun, because the fax fibers have certain
roughness an their surface, which enable
them to cling together. Hence it is inn
possible to make as fine linen as cotton
cloth, but it is much stronger.
The German artillery has recently been
carrying on series of successful expert
ments in lighting forts with electricity,
with view to facilitate bombardment
at night. On the practicing- grounds,
near Juterbogk, thirty-six guns. Of all cal
ibres recently fred off 2,500 shrapnels
and other missiles under the electric light,
the distance being from $500 to $500
meters. The experiments took place in
the presence of about eighty officers, in.
cluding six generals. Though the night
was very dark, the effect of every ball
could be clearly seen. ..
For years huge column of black
smoke by day and lurid flames by night
rolled up from q dense Florida swamp,
but no one penetrated the swamp far
enough to discover the cause. Recently
o young man noticed that the smoke and
flame had disappeared, and he deter.
mined to try and find the spot where
. they had been. With great labor he
worked his way into the swamp until he
came upon large mound of rent and
shattered rocks, which looked as though
they had been subjected to terrific up
heaval. Their under sides were covered
with soot and so were the crevlccs be-
tween but no smoke or heat was discov-
cred. The explorer decided that the fire
was caused by the burning of natural
oil well, which had burned itself out.
The story of the poisoning of Daroko
lake, in Georgetown county, South
Carolina, by hail-storm, has been cor.
roborated by citizen who investigated
the matter at the request of General
Greedy, chief of the signal service. The
lake is surrounded by dense mass OF
black gum trees, the leaves of which are
strongly impregnated with tannic acid.
The bottom of the lake contains slight
deposit of iron. The poisoning of the
water is due to the falling in of bruised
leaves and branches, the tannic acid
emanating from which, mingled with
the iron, formed tanrate of iron, causing
the water to turn black and bitter as
euinine, and poisoning the fishes by
thousands The onlv fish that survived
the singular disaster was the mud fish.